Since the introduction of autofocus as a standard feature in consumer cameras it is no longer a technical difficultly to get the main subject in the middle of the frame sharp and neat even if the object is moving with great speed, or when many other elements are placed at different distances from the camera.
The introduction of autofocus also meant that many photographers mindlessly started to put the subject of their picture exactly in the middle of the frame, because that was where the autofocus worked best. The element within the frame that is sharp attracts our attention. It is where the viewers focus goes, immediately.
Other Photographers use blur, consciously taking the technical sharpness out of their pictures in order to create a certain atmosphere.
Indeed motion blur can very effectively suggest speed; a very sharp object within a blurred surrounding can suggest a sense of space and render the flat photographic surface with a 3D quality. But blurry images can also create a nightly, ghostly, or even scary atmosphere. The elements in the frame become hard to recognize, and force the viewer to fill in the gaps, to use their imagination.
The introduction of autofocus also meant that many photographers mindlessly started to put the subject of their picture exactly in the middle of the frame, because that was where the autofocus worked best. The element within the frame that is sharp attracts our attention. It is where the viewers focus goes, immediately.
Other Photographers use blur, consciously taking the technical sharpness out of their pictures in order to create a certain atmosphere.
Indeed motion blur can very effectively suggest speed; a very sharp object within a blurred surrounding can suggest a sense of space and render the flat photographic surface with a 3D quality. But blurry images can also create a nightly, ghostly, or even scary atmosphere. The elements in the frame become hard to recognize, and force the viewer to fill in the gaps, to use their imagination.
Blurred images can be very attractive. However there is a payoff. The human brain creates an image from what the eyes perceive. The brain, unlike the light-sensitive component of a camera, puts the entire image into focus.
Humans perceive the world in perfect sharpness. If we don't, we buy our self a pair of prescription glasses. Images that have large areas out of focus can be very exhausting to look at - the brain keeps trying to get the image in focus in the first place will never appear sharp.
Humans perceive the world in perfect sharpness. If we don't, we buy our self a pair of prescription glasses. Images that have large areas out of focus can be very exhausting to look at - the brain keeps trying to get the image in focus in the first place will never appear sharp.
Focus
FocusOne of the ways that cameras see the world differently to the way we view it with our eyes is that they can selectively focus on the subject. This phenomenon is related to the mechanics and optics of the camera lens. The photographer can change the settings on the camera in order to alter the amount of light entering the lens. This directly affects the depth of field of the subject being viewed. Some photographers have experimented with a variety of effects that can be achieved by manipulating the cameras ability to bring subjects in and out of focus. |
Exploring depth of field and focus with Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Saul Leiter and Uta Barth.
One of the ways that cameras see the world differently to the way we view it with our eyes is that they can selectively focus on the subject. This phenomenon is related to the mechanics and optics of the camera lens. The photographer can change the settings on the camera in order to alter the amount of light entering the lens. This directly affects the depth of field of the subject being viewed.
Some photographers have experimented with a variety of effects that can be achieved by manipulating the camera's ability to bring subjects in and out of focus.
One of the ways that cameras see the world differently to the way we view it with our eyes is that they can selectively focus on the subject. This phenomenon is related to the mechanics and optics of the camera lens. The photographer can change the settings on the camera in order to alter the amount of light entering the lens. This directly affects the depth of field of the subject being viewed.
Some photographers have experimented with a variety of effects that can be achieved by manipulating the camera's ability to bring subjects in and out of focus.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard:
'No Focus'Meatyard made his living as an optician. He was a member of the Lexington Camera Club and pursued his passion for photography outside the mainstream. He experimented with various strategies including multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series are particularly concerned with focus and depth of field, both stretching the expressive potential of photography, film and cameras when looking with the ordinary world. |
Saul LeiterLeiter was foremost a painter who discovered the possibilities of colour photography. He created an extraordinary body of work, beginning in the 1940s. His images explore colour harmonies and often exploit unusual framing devices - shop signs, umbrellas, curtains, car doors, windows dripping with condensation - to create abstracted compositions of everyday street life in the city. Leiter was fond of using long lenses, partly so that he could remain unobserved, but also so that he could compress space, juxtaposing objects and people in unusual ways. Many of his images use negative space, with large out of focus areas, drawing our eye to a particular detail or splash of colour.
When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion.
-- Saul Leiter
-- Saul Leiter